The outcry about the changes to superannuation announced in the 2016 budget was both predictable and understandable.

The stakes are high. When I last looked at the ATO SMSF statistics, the funds under management (FUM) sitting there were around $600 billion spread across more than 1 million trustees and members and over 500,000 funds.

No one questions Australia’s infrastructure needs. Our population is growing rapidly and is expected to reach 30 million by 2030. That growth will place enormous demands on infrastructure, and when coupled with the need to replenish existing stock, it quickly becomes apparent why the Australian Council of Learned Academies suggests a bill of $350 billion over the next decade will just keep pace with our infrastructure needs.

With the tax white paper slowly winding its way through the maze of government processes, I was reminded recently of that famous quotation: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The offer to address the 13th International Convention of Independent Financial Advisors forum in Monaco on Australia’s SMSF system made me pause to reflect on the strength of our sector of the superannuation industry. So often we get tied up in the day-to-day minutiae that we fail to sit back and appreciate just how much has been achieved.

The SMSF sector must have been well behaved in 2014. Why? Because the report handed down by the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) on Corporations and Financial Services on the cusp of Christmas Eve was the best present our sector could have hoped for. 

When the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) was formed more than a decade ago, our primary goal was to improve professional standards in the SMSF sector.